Spacecraft
If you want to launch a satellite in the usual way – on top of a rocket – it will typically cost you at least US$50,000,000. Newly-inaugurated aerospace firm Swiss Space Systems (S3), however, claims that it will be able to put your small satellite into orbit for about 10.6 million bucks. Why so cheap? S3 is planning on flying satellites into space, using an airliner and an unmanned shuttle. Read More
ESA and the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, have entered into a project to jointly explore the planet Mars. During a ceremony on Thursday (Mar. 14) at ESA Headquarters in Paris, the two agencies formed a partnership for ESA’s ExoMars program when a formal agreement was signed between ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin. This agreement covers shared responsibilities for two missions involving three spacecraft in 2016 and 2018. Read More
The latest test of the SpaceX reusable Grasshopper rocket has been presented by CEO Elon Musk at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It shows the rocket, capable of both vertical takeoff and landing, reaching its greatest height yet. Read More
The phrase "engage the ion drive" still has the ring of a line from Star Wars, but these engines have been used in space missions for more than four decades and remain the subject of ongoing research. Ion engines have incredible fuel efficiency, but their low thrust requires very long operating times ... and therein lies the rub. To date, erosion within such an engine seriously limits its operational lifetime. Now a group of researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a new design that largely eliminates this erosion, opening the gates for higher thrust and more efficient drives for manned and unmanned missions to the reaches of the Solar System. Read More
Today at 8:56 AM EST, the Spacex Dragon CRS-2 mission berthed with the International Space Station (ISS). The unmanned cargo ship was captured using the station’s robotic arm at 5:31 AM by ISS Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Tom Mashburn of NASA before being secured to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. Read More
At a teleconference today (Mar.1) at 3:00 PM EST (2000 GMT), SpaceX and NASA confirmed that the malfunction of three of the four thruster pods of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has been corrected. Though the cause of the failure remains unknown, a note received during the conference from Dragon mission control stated that all four pods are working nominally with two of the pods preparing to come online this afternoon. Read More
This morning (Mar. 1), the SpaceX Dragon CRS-2 mission lifted off successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 10:10:13 AM EST (1010:13 GMT) only to experience a major malfunction in Dragon’s thruster pods. SpaceX reported at 10:43 AM (1543 GMT) that three of the unmanned Dragon spacecraft’s four thruster pods have failed to activate – placing Dragon’s rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in peril. Read More
Dennis Tito, the man who in 2001 became the first space tourist by shelling out a reported US$20 million to hitch a ride on the Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space Station, has now announced plans for a manned mission to Mars – and back. Tito won’t be going himself, but has established Inspiration Mars, a new nonprofit foundation that will oversee the mission in the hope of spurring “growth, national prosperity, knowledge and global leadership” through space exploration. Read More
The world’s first space smartphone was launched into orbit today (Feb 25) atop an Indian Space Research Organisation PSLV rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. It’s part of the systems of the STRaND-1 spacecraft, which was sent into a 785-kilometer (488-mi) Sun-synchronous orbit where it will carry out a series of technology demonstrations under the guidance of the Surrey Space Centre’s ground station at the University of Surrey, UK. Read More
At the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India this morning (Feb. 25), the smallest astronomical satellite ever built was launched into orbit aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C20 rocket. In fact, it wasn’t just one satellite, but two – each of the twin BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) spacecraft take the form of a cube that measures just 20 cm (7.8 inches) per side, and weighs in at under seven kilograms (15.4 lbs). Read More
